Don Allen All FEMA part 4/1010 Feb 92 00:05:00 AREA:HUMAN
VIA: QEcho 2.66a
>>>>>======FEMA part 4============================================>>>>>>
____________________________________________________________________
| |
| Bush Chips Away at Constitution |
| |
| George Bush, perhaps more than any other individual in |
| U.S. history, has expanded the emergency powers of |
| presidency. In 1976, as Director of Central Intelligence, |
| he convened Team B, a group of rabidly anti-communist |
| intellectuals and former government officials to reevaluate |
| CIA inhouse intelligence estimates on Soviet military |
| strength. The resulting report recommended draconian civil |
| defense measures which led to President Ford's Executive |
| Order 11921 authorizing plans to establish government |
| control of the means of production, distribution, energy |
| sources, wages and salaries, credit and the flow of money |
| in U.S. financial institutions in a national emergency.[1] |
| As Vice President, Bush headed the Task Force on |
| Combatting Terrorism, that recommended: extended and |
| flexible emergency presidential powers to combat terrorism; |
| restrictions on congressional oversight in counter- |
| terrorist planning; and curbing press coverage of |
| terrorist incidents.[2] The report gave rise to the Anti- |
| Terrorism Act of 1986, that granted the President clear-cut |
| authority to respond to terrorism with all appropriate |
| means including deadly force. It authorized the |
| Immigration and Naturalization Service to control and |
| remove not only alien terrorists but potential terrorist |
| aliens and those "who are likely to be supportive of |
| terrorist activity within the U.S."[3] The bill superceded |
| the War Powers Act by imposing no time limit on the |
| President's use of force in a terrorist situation, and |
| lifted the requirement that the President consult Congress |
| before sanctioning deadly force. |
| From 1982 to 1988, Bush led the Defense Mobilization |
| Planning Systems Agency (DMPSA), a secret government |
| organization, and spent more than $3 billion upgrading |
| command, control, and communications in FEMA's continuity |
| of government infrastructures. Continuity of Government |
| (COG) was ostensibly created to assure government |
| functioning during war, especially nuclear war. The Agency |
| was so secret that even many members of the Pentagon were |
| unaware of its existence and most of its work was done |
| without congressional oversight. |
| Project 908, as the DMPSA was sometimes called, was |
| similar to its parent agency FEMA in that it came under |
| investigation for mismanagement and contract |
| irregularities.[4] During this same period, FEMA had been |
| fraught with scandals including emergency planning with a |
| distinctly anti-constitutional flavor. The agency would |
| have sidestepped Congress and other federal agencies and |
| put the President and FEMA directly in charge of the U.S. |
| planning for martial rule. Under this state, the executive |
| would take upon itself powers far beyond those necessary to |
| address national emergency contingencies.[5] |
| Bush's "anything goes" anti-drug strategy, announced |
| on September 6, 1989, suggested that executive emergency |
| powers be used: to oust those suspected of associating |
| with drug users or sellers from public and private housing; |
| to mobilize the National Guard and U.S. military to fight |
| drugs in the continental U.S.; to confiscate private |
| property belonging to drug users, and to incarcerate first |
| time offenders in work camps.[6] |
| The record of Bush's fast and loose approach to |
| constitutionally guaranteed civil rights is a history of |
| the erosion of liberty and the consolidation of an imperial |
| executive. |
| |
| 1. Executive Order 11921, "Emergency preparedness Functions, |
| June 11, 1976. Federal Register, vol. 41, no. 116. The |
| report was attacked by such notables as Ray Cline, the |
| CIA's former Deputy Director, retired CIA intelligence |
| analyst Arthur Macy Cox, and the former head of the U.S. |
| Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Paul Warnke for |
| blatantly manipulating CIA intelligence to achieve the |
| political ends of Team B's rightwing members. See Cline, |
| quoted in "Carter to Inherit Intense Dispute on Soviet |
| Intentions," Mary Marder, "Washington Post," January 2, |
| 1977; Arthur Macy Cox, "Why the U.S. Since 1977 Has |
| Been Mis-perceiving Soviet Military Strength," "New York |
| Times," October 20, 1980; Paul Warnke, "George Bush and |
| Team B," "New York Times," September 24, 1988. |
| |
| 2. George Bush, "Public Report of the Vice President's Task |
| Force On Combatting Terrorism" (Washington, D.C.: U.S. |
| Government Printing Office), February 1986. |
| |
| 3. Robert J. Walsh, Assistant Commissioner, Investigations |
| Division, Immigration and Naturalization Service, "Alien |
| Border Control Committee" (Washington, DC), October 1, |
| 1988. |
| |
| 4. Steven Emerson, "America's Doomsday Project," "U.S. News |
| & World Report," August 7, 1989. |
| |
| 5. See: Diana Reynolds, "FEMA and the NSC: The Rise of the |
| National Security State," "CAIB," Number 33 (Winter 1990); |
| Keenan Peck, "The Take-Charge Gang," "The Progressive," |
| May 1985; Jack Anderson, "FEMA Wants to Lead Economic |
| War," "Washington Post," January 10, 1985. |
| |
| 6. These Presidential powers were authorized by the Anti- |
| Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Public Law 100-690: 100th |
| Congress. See also: Diana Reynolds, "The Golden Lie," |
| "The Humanist," September/October 1990; Michael Isikoff, |
| "Is This Determination or Using a Howitzer to Kill a |
| Fly?" "Washington Post National Weekly," August 27-, |
| September 2, 1990; Bernard Weintraub, "Bush Considers |
| Calling Guard To Fight Drug Violence in Capital," "New |
| York Times," March 21, 1989. |
| |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
<<<<<<======Continued in FEMA part 5====================================>>>>
Don
--- QuickBBS 2.66/O (Reg)